Last weekend, our family watched the film version of Life of Pi. I was intrigued by the story, and I knew there had to be far more to it, so I requested the book through our library’s e-book system.

What a fascinating book. It is not that I agree with the philosophy of the book or that it was somehow life-changing. The book is just fascinating.

It is an exploration of the human experience, written in extremes and conflations. Whether it is the basic desires of safety or food, or the complex interaction with nature in all its terrifying beauty – Yan Martel gives them all the same treatment.

Martel’s narrative style is both vibrant and varied. When his protagonist is on (and possibly over) the edge of sanity, the frenzied sentences are much different than the voice of his anonymous, but obviously first person notations of the author meeting Pi.

The novel has a very straightforward style which partially obscures the very complicated story it is trying to tell; and Martel leaves so much of the “real” story to the reader’s imagination.